Green Linen Jacket

It's linen, and though I pressed it oh so carefully during construction, it wrinkles like all linen is wont to do.  So I'm embracing the wrinkles, and hoping like anything that it'll do its job in the heat.

It's the McCall's Palmer/Pletsch Classic Fit "The Perfect Suit" M5396 jacket.  I made a straight size 12, with size 10 sleeves (shortened by 9 cm/3.5") , and slightly flattened by 1/4" sleeve caps.

Beautiful little pattern - and the daughter  opined, "it looks effortless".  I really like the small lapels, the princess bust seam, and the shoulder to hip dart.  But I have a sneaking suspicion that I'd have done as well if not better to have made a size 10 back and sleeves, and then added 3/8" to each side front at the side seam to allow for my upper front.  I intend to shanghai a certain person...shhhhh! to help me really fit it, so I can use it again and again. 

This is my first unlined jacket.  I've always made lined ones before.  So, being that this is really a shirt-jacket, I used shirting technique to put it together.  All the seams are flat-felled, except the under-sleeve seam, which is a french seam, because I want to be able to roll 'em up without embarrassment (they're rolled up in the pics).  Even yoke and dart seams are top-stitched.  Despite that, you'll see no raw edges anywhere.  Better yet, this jacket has seen NO serging, none, nada!

Flat felling & top stitching close-up

Flat-felling isn't as laborious as one might suspect (and much faster than bias binding) , once you get into the press-press-trim-press-press-sew groove).  Still, it would've been nice if the pattern had matched the under-sleeve seam with the side seam, and instructed them to be inserted in the flat, as with a man's shirt.

The pattern instructions tell you to bias bind the sleeve inset, but frankly I just gave up at that point, and simply used the triple zig zag on it.  I omitted the shoulder pads as well, and took in 3/8" of the outer front-shoulder yoke seam to allow for that.  I could probably have reduced the shoulder space some more by re-drawing the shoulder curve - next time!

I gave the jacket 3 buttons instead of four, and used my snazzy Singer buttonholer with  1+ 1/16" keyhole buttonhole template to make eye-popping buttonholes that match three big look-at-me-look-at-me-now 1" white buttons.

Big question now is, what to do with the rest of all this lovely green+white cross-dyed linen?